The Scissor Sisters will add glamour to the Games as they have signed up to be one of the star acts in a live musical curtain raiser to London 2012. The New York band will take to one of six stages at historic sites along the River Thames where acts from across the globe will perform in a two-day festival. More than 500,000 people are expected to see the bands strike up a welcome to London in different styles and collaborations to reflect the continents the competitors at London 2012 come from.

The Amateur International Boxing Association has asked female boxers to wear skirts, which it said would allow spectators to distinguish them from men, but at last week's European Championships in Rotterdam only two nations – Poland and Romania – wore the outfits. Poland Boxing took it a step further and made the attire compulsory for its boxers, saying they are more "elegant". The Poland coach, Leszek Piotrowski, said: "By wearing skirts, in my opinion, it gives a good impression, a womanly impression."

Organisers have unveiled the striking blue Olympic Hockey Centre pitch in Stratford. It will be the first world event to be played on a different coloured synthetic turf from the traditional green. The water-based surface uses a high-performance polyethylene resin helping to make it the world's fastest pitch. International players have been trying out the pitch and the GB women's international Alex Danson is a fan of the new yellow balls. "The brighter the ball is, the better you can see it," she said. "The pitch is great to play on too; it's really quick and true and enables us to play with confidence."

Villa Park in Birmingham has been earmarked as the venue for a double bill of friendlies to celebrate Britain's return to Olympic football after 40 years. The women's and men's teams are scheduled to play friendlies at the same venue on the same day in July. Manchester United's Chris Smalling has suggested he would be interested in representing Britain at London 2012 should he not make the Euro 2012 squad. The defender said: "Towards the end of the season I will be looking towards that [Euro 2012] and hopefully I might get into the England squad. There is also the Olympics as well. A lot of the lads who went to the Under-21 Championships last summer will be able to play in it. Whether it is the Euros, the Olympics or both – you would like to be involved because these opportunities do not come around too often."

Geraint Thomas has joined athletes who have decided against competing at major championships before the Olympics. Following the US sprinter Tyson Gay (who missed this summer's World Championships) and the Para-equestrianism gold medallist Lee Pearson (who missed the Europeans last month), the British cyclist will skip next year's Tour de France to concentrate on London 2012. The 2008 team pursuit gold medallist feels the Tour de France is too close to the Olympics as there is only a fortnight between the two competitions and he will ride in the earlier Giro d'Italia instead. Thomas said: "The Olympics is the main goal for me, so I don't want to jeopardise that in any way."

The new European omnium champion, Ed Clancy, is considering giving up the event to help GB's cyclists defend their Olympic team pursuit crown. The 26-year-old, who was part of the team pursuit quartet in Beijing and a former omnium world champion, won the European title in the Netherlands last weekend. He said: "The omnium is more an endurance-man's game now and that doesn't suit me too well. I'm all for the team pursuit, whatever it takes – I'll scrap this omnium, I'll leave it alone."

Perri Shakes-Drayton has backed Kelly Sotherton's decision to return to the heptathlon in her final Olympic chance. Sotherton, who came third in Athens in 2004, has been concentrating on the 400m since November 2010 but after failing to qualify for the World Championships she began training for multi-eventing again four weeks ago. Shakes-Drayton, a 400m hurdler, believes Sotherton still has what it takes. She said: "In Olympic year anything is possible. Kelly still has that great passion for the sport and for heptathlon, so good luck to her. I'm completely behind her. With the home support she'll get in London it's bound to spur her on even more and who knows what she could achieve?"

The British swimmer James Goddard took 100m and 200m medley silvers at the Fina World Cup in Berlin, twice finishing behind the 14-times Olympic champion Michael Phelps, and a breaststroke silver. Goddard hopes to get closer to Phelps over the coming year and will be looking to emulate Fran Halsall, who won gold in the women's 100m individual medley.

The Cornish runner Jemma Simpson lost her appeal against her funding cut. Simpson, 27, was removed from the list of British athletes who receive lottery funding after enduring an injury-hit season. A panel, including the UK Athletics head coach, Charles van Commenee, rejected Simpson's appeal. Simpson said: "It ultimately came down to opinion, the panel took a vote and it went against me."

"On my way to do some filming for chn4 news! They better make me look good on my bday lol" – Nicola Adams, who last week made history by becoming the first British woman to win a major boxing title, celebrated her 29th birthday on Wednesday by doing an interview.